was oppressively hot, her father seemed to resent being there, Luke cried, and, as a new mother, Erica was too exhausted to do much to boost her father's spirits. A few weeks later, her brother called, and then her mother got on the phone. While they were in New Brunswick, her father had experienced a crippling head- ache, and had been taken by ferry to a hospital in Calais, Maine. His leukemia was in an advanced stage. Erica started crying. She hadn't called him on his birth- day; the day before, and now she felt terri- ble, and worried that it was too late. T ak- ing time off from Steinway, and leaving Luke with Eric, she flew to Calais. Her fa- ther was conscious, but he couldn't speak or eat. He had asked that his life not be prolonged artificially; and he was not re- ceiving any nutrients. Alone with her fa- ther, Erica told him, "I know we've grown apart. I don't know why; but I'm sorry" Erica spent the night in the hospital with her sisters. The next day; she re- turned to New York; there was nothing to do in Maine but wait. Two days later, with no new develop- ments at the hospital, Erica and Eric prepared a dinner celebrating her father. They made Martinis, Rein's favorite cocktail, and listened to a recording of Dinu Lipatti, his favorite pianist. But later that night Erica felt resdess. " } " h ld E . " I want to go out, s e to rlc. want to be alone." After she left the apartment, she found herself walking toward Steinwa)!. When she arrived, the building was locked. She let herself in. The large hall was eerily silent. The chandelier illumi- nated a concert grand, Serial No. 531248. It happened to be Ericàs favorite piano then in the showroom, and she didn't know that it had been placed on display in the center of the room. She went to the nearest desk and called her father's hospi- tal room. Amy answered, and Erica asked her to put the receiver to her father's ear. Then Erica walked to the piano, and sat at the keyboard. She began playing from memory; first the Chopin Ballade No.4 in F Minor. Then two Bach pre- ludes. Then the Chopin C-Sharp-Minor Nocturne, Opus Posthumous. The music came pouring out, flawlessly; effortlessl)!. Erica felt that she had never played bet- ter, or with such feeling. As the last notes of the nocturne faded, something told her to stop. Emotionally drained, she sat for a moment in silence, and then told her father that she loved him. The next morning, Rein died. A fter her father's death, Erica began playing again-the Chopin polo- naises, the mazurkas, the F-Minor Fan- tasy-though she didn't lose her inhibi- tions overnight. "I'm still struggling," she said recentl)!. "But I've had bursts of play- ing." She is continuing to practice, and plans to take up Prokofiev's Sonata No.1 and the Schubert Sonata in B- Flat Major, written just before the composer's death. Her sisters have also returned to music and the piano. Polly is running the piano camp with their mother in Bennington, and T asha teaches there, too. Amy is teaching piano in Manhattan; several of her students have been referred by Erica. Two years ago, Erica was testing a new ebonized Model B at Steinway; and discovered a piano she felt that she, too, collidn't live without. "I could tell it what to do," she said. "I knew that within two sec- onds. The sound is assertive, bold, fiery" But, for someone so adept at matching people and pianos, she agonized over her own choice. "When it comes to yourself: it's different," she told me. "I couldn't quite hear." She consulted two Steinway technicians, who reinforced her initial impression: it was an exceptional piano. She bought it, using Steinway's employee discount, and she and Eric found room for it in a new, larger house in subur- ban Mount Kisco. Erica gave birth to a daughter last summer, and Luke, now five, has been improvising on the piano. This March, Erica performed in pub- lic for the first time in fourteen years, at an event for students and their parents at the Performing Arts Center ih West- hampton Beach, New York. The audi- ence was wildly enthusiastic, even though she had two minor memory slips in a Chopin polonaise. Once, she would have agonized over this, but now it didn't mat- ter, she told me shortly after the perfor- mance. "I don't have to be a professional. I can relax." Steinway concert grand No. 531248 was sold soon after Erica experienced her reawakening at its keyboard. She hated to see it go. But before it left the showroom she had a technician remove one of its bronze pedals and replace it with another. The original now rests in a drawer in her bedroom. . .".p".. "u' "0 .-.":- ;,: : > '". .. .... .," 0;,,- :: '. ;. , , ,.... ,::" :,:.:,,, , !t. } , J :. 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